Thursday, August 4, 2011

Switzerland. 3 days of bliss.

I can't even begin to describe how beautiful Interlaken, Switzerland is. We are staying in a hostel that has tent camping, and our tent is surrounded by mountains on every side. Most days the clouds sit perfectly on the top, and the mountians are the greenest green. The water every where is super baby blue, and so clear. It's like a little slice of heaven was put on earth in the middle of the Swiss alps. I love it here, and it's been nice to relax and be in the fresh outdoors for the past three days.

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon, and the first thing we did was drop off our stuff and head out to find the water. The currency here is francs, so we had to take out even more money. Besides the dollar this is the fourth currency we have been on. Crazy! We walked literally five miles without finding the lake, so taylor and veronica ended up jumping into the river. After looking around for a little while, we head back for an early night in. I soon realize that I am without my wallet, and it is no where to be found. Sadly, I am pretty positive it is on a train between Milan and Bern, and I won't be getting it back before we leave. Luckily, I still have my passport and veronica's mom is a sweet heart and is letting me use her money and I pay her back later. So no worries, I have money and will still be eating food! I definitely freaked out for a while, realizing my debit card and 75 dollars worth was missing, but my heart was calmed by sleep and good friends.

Wednesday veronica and I slept in while Taylor got up early to hike for the whole day. That did not sound too appealing to us, especially with the major thunderstorms. I could literally hear the thunder roll through the mountains. I have officially conquered my fear of storms. I convinced Veronica to get on a train with me and go up a mountain to a town called grindelwald. It is a cute little Swiss town with cottages spread out among the mountain side. It finally stopped raining and it was gorgeous being on cloud level. After that we went back into Interlaken and took a bus to one of the two lakes in town. Now imagine the color of blue cotton candy as the water color, along with mountains surrounding the entire lake for miles. I seriously could of stared at it for hours. We then met back up with Taylor at the hostel and had a very good meal of granola, milk, and coffee. Yummy!

Today we got up around ten and walked into town to the bottom of a hiking trail. We were ready for a two and a half hour hike up the mountain! However, thirty minutes into it Veronica and I were absolutely dying, and decided to go back down and take the cart up the mountain while Taylor hiked the rest. Yes we know, it's Switzerland and we probably won't get a chance to hike a mountain here again, but we didn't eat well this morning, which was not a good idea on our part. So we met taylor at the top and got a marvelous view of the entire city of Interlaken as well as both lakes that laid on each side. I loved taking in it all, thanking god for blessing us with such beauty. We went back down the mountain and went back to the lake, and now we are relaxing back at the tent site munching on food and enjoying the cooler weather. Currently a herd of cows just walked by on the street, causing a traffic jam. Amazing!

We are leaving for Paris tomorrow, our last city before we head back to Dublin for our flight! So sad this trip is coming to an end, but I am ready to get back and share pictures and stories with everyone! We are all doing well, very tired and sun burned. We are ready for some home cooking, so if anyone is offering one when I get home, I'll gladly accept. :)